Acting collectively
The Festival of Solidarity isn’t just an individual effort! If there’s a Festisol collective near you, the first thing to do is get in touch with them. If there isn’t one, we invite you to contact your regional coordination team, who will advise you on how to set up a collective with other organisations in your area.
Working collectively at the level of a neighbourhood, a town or a group of local authorities helps to maximise the impact of your actions and enables you to learn from one another.
All Festisol collectives in France can apply, via their participant portal, for financial support to organise their events as part of the Festival, or for training courses throughout the year.
Developing your strategy
To ensure the Festival is a success in your area, you need to start by setting your objectives: Which audiences do you want to reach? What do you want to tell them about? What methods do you want to use to raise awareness? What human, material and financial resources do you have at your disposal? How can you raise the profile of your events? How can you tell if your awareness-raising efforts have been successful?
These are questions you should ask yourself both in relation to your collective’s programme of events and in relation to each individual event you organise.
Mobilise the necessary resources
Once you have drawn up your action plan, you will almost certainly need to mobilise additional human and financial resources on top of those you already have at your disposal. The regional Festisol co-ordinating bodies can help you with this.
Finding the right people
Before you start recruiting volunteers, staff or civic service volunteers, do consider asking organisations in your local area if they would be willing to partner with you for your event. From your organiser’s account on our website, you can also put out a call for volunteers or paid helpers.
Finding technical solutions
To help you organise and run your events, you’ll find resources covering a range of topics in various formats and formats (games, exhibitions, fact sheets, etc.) in the Tools and Resources section.
Finding financial resources
Many local authorities offer funding schemes for citizenship education initiatives. But this is not the only way to raise funds: you could try crowdfunding (where citizens contribute directly in exchange for rewards), or develop forms of self-funding (such as selling products or charging admission fees).
In addition, Festisol’s regional coordination teams can organise discussion sessions or training on the subject of funding, and you can contact them for further information on the options available in your local area or at national level.
Finally, all collectives in France can apply to Festisol’s national coordination team for financial support to organise their events. To find out more, please visit your organiser’s portal.
Promoting your events
Once you’ve finalised your events, you’ll need to publicise them widely, decked out in the colours of the Festival des Solidarités! From your organiser’s dashboard, publish your events and order Festisol posters and leaflets. You can also create your own promotional materials – for social media or for printing – using the templates provided. If you create your own materials, please remember to always include the Festival des Solidarités logo. To support you in your communications with the media, we’ve also made a press pack and a press release template available in your organiser’s area.
Have fun!
Just because our cause is a serious one doesn’t mean we have to take ourselves too seriously… On the contrary, we’re convinced that by presenting a friendly face, we’ll inspire those who aren’t yet convinced to join us. We’re outraged, committed and well-informed, but that doesn’t mean we have all the answers, and collective action is also a source of joy for us.
At our events, let’s share the joy of changing the world together!
Observe the effects of his activities
Do our activities raise awareness amongst our audiences? It certainly seems so, but how can we prove it? We offer a simple tool for monitoring the impact of our activities on our audiences.
See the practical guide to audience observation
Direct link to the online questionnaire (to be completed by the public)
Share a report on one’s activities
In France
Following the Festival of Solidarity, we would be grateful if you could share a summary of your activities with us. A debriefing meeting amongst the members of your collective is essential to properly analyse your work, celebrate your successes in style, and start preparing for your upcoming events. You can draft your activity report in a Word document before completing it online.
This meeting will enable you to prepare the information that you will then send to us. This information is essential for us to be able to highlight your achievements and to improve the support we provide.
If you have received the Coup de Pouce grant, you must also submit a financial report on your activities to your national co-ordinating body by 19 January 2026 at the latest.
Outside France
Groups taking part in the Solidarity Festival outside France are also invited to share a summary of their activities with us via this online form. We recommend using this Word document as a guide.
Sharing your experience with the network
As a participant or collective at the Festival des Solidarités, you will gain a wealth of experience over the course of the festival’s various editions in organising activities to promote citizenship and solidarity, in working as a collective and in partnership, in communication, and so on.
This collection of experiences is a shared resource within our Festisol network, and we have every reason to share it with other stakeholders (to improve our work, save time, find new ideas, etc.). To find out more, click on our dedicated page.